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Stealing The Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia
When does a philosophy become a conspiracy?
In 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried — once hailed as the future of finance and one of the richest men in America — was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $11 billion and collapsing over a hundred companies. Stealing the Future is the inside story of that unraveling, told by a member of the CoinDesk team that first broke the case.
But this is more than a true crime story.
It’s a journey into the tangled web of tech-utopianism, libertarian idealism, and the seductive ideologies of Silicon Valley — from Effective Altruism to transhumanism — that helped cloak one of the biggest financial frauds of the 21st century.
As these philosophies increasingly fuel the global far right, Stealing the Future what happens when abstract theories gain real power — and who’s really paying the price?
In 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried — once hailed as the future of finance and one of the richest men in America — was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $11 billion and collapsing over a hundred companies. Stealing the Future is the inside story of that unraveling, told by a member of the CoinDesk team that first broke the case.
But this is more than a true crime story.
It’s a journey into the tangled web of tech-utopianism, libertarian idealism, and the seductive ideologies of Silicon Valley — from Effective Altruism to transhumanism — that helped cloak one of the biggest financial frauds of the 21st century.
As these philosophies increasingly fuel the global far right, Stealing the Future what happens when abstract theories gain real power — and who’s really paying the price?
439 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2025
About the author
David Morris
296 books7 followersDavid Morris, author of Tactical Firearms Training Secrets, is a specialist in practical firearms training and survival techniques. His book, published in 2012, focuses on teaching tactical skills that can be practiced at home using methods like dry firing and airsoft. It emphasizes cost-effective ways to develop advanced shooting skills without extensive range time. Morris is also known for offering advice on broader preparedness topics in other works, including urban survival.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 6, 2026
Enjoyability: ★★★★
The book is well written, an easy read, and shows the signs of a well-educated mind. At times, the argument gets a tad repetitive, though. I am very interested in everything that happened with FTX as well as about the EA/Rationalist community and its beliefs, so this heightened my enjoyment of the book.
Enlightenment: ★
The low score here mostly doesn’t come from the book’s limitations (although there are some), but from the fact that I’ve read a lot on this matter, so I it was difficult for me to learn anything new about it.
Originality: ★★
The author explores both the FTX fraud and Sam Bankman-Fried’s character and background, on the one hand, and what he sees as the intellectual underpinnings of his misdeeds, on the other. These are identified with the TESCREAL techno-utopian bundle: utilitarian philosophy, liberal-elite beliefs, EA, Rationalism, and Extropianism/Transhumanism. This is a theme that has already been explored in some detail by other writers I’ve read, and I feel the author does not really expand on it, except by intertwining it more closely with “whatever the hell happened” at FTX and with references to other “tech right” billionaires like Elon Musk or Peter Thiel.
Cultural weight: ★★ / Doesn’t apply
This is a pop crypto/finance scandal/philosophy book of sorts, and this category is really meant for works of literature or science that have the potential to make a lasting impact in their fields. You could perhaps judge how influential it is going to be in framing the popular narrative about why and what happened at FTX, but I suspect that the greater influence on the popular imagination will come from the upcoming Netflix series.
*Down the FTX Rabbit Hole*
Let’s go back in time to around four years ago, in November 2022. At the time, I remember finding in my Twitter feed some obscure references to something — or someone — called SBF, who was apparently involved in some financial scandal. A few days later, the fates of the algorithm exposed me to another bit of information about this, in the form of a link to a Forbes article by David Jeans about Caroline Ellison: “a math whiz who loves Harry Potter, fringe political philosophy and taking big risks. She is also one of the supporting players in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX catastrophe.” What I read there piqued my curiosity and got me reading more both about the FTX scandal and about Caroline’s thoughts and ideas, which could be glimpsed through her now-defunct Tumblr blog, World Optimization.
I think I wasn’t the only reader to feel that the person who emerged from those words was at loggerheads with the lurid and insulting view of her that was being paraded in the media. But anyway, be that as it may, I learned about, and became interested in, a lot of unusual stuff through the lens of her words, and would read and learn a lot in the following months about cryptocurrency, finance, utilitarian philosophy, Effective Altruism, and the Rationalist community.
I’ve also read and reviewed all the books that have been published so far on the FTX scandal: Brady Dale’s SBF, Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up and Michael Lewis’s Going Infinite (yes, my reviews were shorter then). Laura Shin was allegedly in the process of writing one as well, but that project seems to have stalled, so Stealing the Future is the latest addition to the lot.
*The Book’s Argument*
David Z. Morris’s book is a hybrid creature. On the one hand, it is a decently detailed explanation of the FTX fraud and of its main instigator, SBF, along with a biographical portrait of the latter. On the other hand, it uses the scandal and the figure of Sam as a springboard for a broader thesis against techno-utopianism: the set of beliefs that allegedly justified, directed, and motivated SBF’s life and deeds. Techno-utopianism is presented as a bundle of beliefs and movements — utilitarian ethics, Effective Altruism, Rationalism, expected-value reasoning, crypto-financial abstraction, and the Silicon Valley cult of intelligence, entrepreneurship, and billionaires — whose core, antidemocratic belief is that a small class of mathematically, technologically, and financially gifted people can see the future clearly enough to rule the present. At the same time, this is presented as a real danger, manifested in dangerous and ruinous financial and political practices of the tech-right, of which the FTX scandal is the showpiece, but just one among others (he’s looking at you, Elon Musk).
The book’s chapters tend to mix and/or alternate between these two facets: some go into detail explaining SBF’s fraudulent practices, as well as his time in court; others wax philosophical on the author’s disagreements with specific strands of TESCREAL techno-utopian ideology; and still others mix both strands together, with Sam meant to act as an exemplum of the broader beliefs and practices of the techno-utopian bundle. If you are interested in a more detailed view of its contents, I am summarizing and writing notes on each chapter in my substack.
*Assessment*
Overall, the book is an entertaining and informative read. I do feel it needs to be said that the writer is at his strongest when he’s disentangling and explaining what actually happened at FTX — he was a crypto journalist working for CoinDesk, so this is his actual area of expertise — and at his weakest when he’s trying to present his overarching thesis on the TESCREAList, tech-right intellectual conspiracy against democracy as a coherent underlying structure. He seems to be writing from a very specific ideological, left-leaning lens — whether it is his own or what he expects his intended readership to have — and doesn’t do what I feel is convincing work either in explaining the characteristics and influence of these tech-utopian ideologies or in criticizing their specific values and practices. To latch onto a few examples, he presents a very reductionist view of utilitarianism — when most utilitarians tend, in practice, to be rule-based utilitarians, and pretty similar in their moral practices and injunctions to traditional moral views — and of Rationalism, putting a lot of emphasis on how much they claim to deal in certainties and on their powers of prediction. He also has a tendency to cherry-pick and highlight relatively minor episodes and incidents, like Leverage or the Zizians, as if they represented normative and habitual behavior in these movements, with lots of implied guilt by association. It feels like the author has a very clear ideological and mental story, and anything he can find to support it is grist for the mill.
I think the author could have made a better book if he had been more systematic and detailed in explaining the whole FTX scandal, which I hope is what Laura Shin will end up doing if she ever gets around to writing her book. He could also have followed the other path — that of “intellectual definition, criticism, and refutation of TESCREAList beliefs and practices,” or of a general criticism of the tech-right’s beliefs and practices — but that is a well-trodden field too. As an example, you have Adam Becker’s More Everything Forever, which I reviewed both in general and chapter by chapter last year. Still, the author presents some interesting intellectual arguments. I particularly enjoyed the references to Jean Baudrillard, a thinker I read and pondered a great deal in my university years.
In the end, I think I could recommend the book to anyone interested in FTX, SBF, Effective Altruism, Rationalism, or the moral psychology of Silicon Valley, but if and only if they also read something that gives a different view from the other side of the fence, particularly as regards EA and Rationalism. In that sense, I would recommend it more as a foil and debating piece, one that highlights counterarguments and blind spots in those movements and communities. Unfortunately, I don’t think a single book like that exists, but I can suggest some specific books and articles for different branches.
The book is well written, an easy read, and shows the signs of a well-educated mind. At times, the argument gets a tad repetitive, though. I am very interested in everything that happened with FTX as well as about the EA/Rationalist community and its beliefs, so this heightened my enjoyment of the book.
Enlightenment: ★
The low score here mostly doesn’t come from the book’s limitations (although there are some), but from the fact that I’ve read a lot on this matter, so I it was difficult for me to learn anything new about it.
Originality: ★★
The author explores both the FTX fraud and Sam Bankman-Fried’s character and background, on the one hand, and what he sees as the intellectual underpinnings of his misdeeds, on the other. These are identified with the TESCREAL techno-utopian bundle: utilitarian philosophy, liberal-elite beliefs, EA, Rationalism, and Extropianism/Transhumanism. This is a theme that has already been explored in some detail by other writers I’ve read, and I feel the author does not really expand on it, except by intertwining it more closely with “whatever the hell happened” at FTX and with references to other “tech right” billionaires like Elon Musk or Peter Thiel.
Cultural weight: ★★ / Doesn’t apply
This is a pop crypto/finance scandal/philosophy book of sorts, and this category is really meant for works of literature or science that have the potential to make a lasting impact in their fields. You could perhaps judge how influential it is going to be in framing the popular narrative about why and what happened at FTX, but I suspect that the greater influence on the popular imagination will come from the upcoming Netflix series.
*Down the FTX Rabbit Hole*
Let’s go back in time to around four years ago, in November 2022. At the time, I remember finding in my Twitter feed some obscure references to something — or someone — called SBF, who was apparently involved in some financial scandal. A few days later, the fates of the algorithm exposed me to another bit of information about this, in the form of a link to a Forbes article by David Jeans about Caroline Ellison: “a math whiz who loves Harry Potter, fringe political philosophy and taking big risks. She is also one of the supporting players in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX catastrophe.” What I read there piqued my curiosity and got me reading more both about the FTX scandal and about Caroline’s thoughts and ideas, which could be glimpsed through her now-defunct Tumblr blog, World Optimization.
I think I wasn’t the only reader to feel that the person who emerged from those words was at loggerheads with the lurid and insulting view of her that was being paraded in the media. But anyway, be that as it may, I learned about, and became interested in, a lot of unusual stuff through the lens of her words, and would read and learn a lot in the following months about cryptocurrency, finance, utilitarian philosophy, Effective Altruism, and the Rationalist community.
I’ve also read and reviewed all the books that have been published so far on the FTX scandal: Brady Dale’s SBF, Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up and Michael Lewis’s Going Infinite (yes, my reviews were shorter then). Laura Shin was allegedly in the process of writing one as well, but that project seems to have stalled, so Stealing the Future is the latest addition to the lot.
*The Book’s Argument*
David Z. Morris’s book is a hybrid creature. On the one hand, it is a decently detailed explanation of the FTX fraud and of its main instigator, SBF, along with a biographical portrait of the latter. On the other hand, it uses the scandal and the figure of Sam as a springboard for a broader thesis against techno-utopianism: the set of beliefs that allegedly justified, directed, and motivated SBF’s life and deeds. Techno-utopianism is presented as a bundle of beliefs and movements — utilitarian ethics, Effective Altruism, Rationalism, expected-value reasoning, crypto-financial abstraction, and the Silicon Valley cult of intelligence, entrepreneurship, and billionaires — whose core, antidemocratic belief is that a small class of mathematically, technologically, and financially gifted people can see the future clearly enough to rule the present. At the same time, this is presented as a real danger, manifested in dangerous and ruinous financial and political practices of the tech-right, of which the FTX scandal is the showpiece, but just one among others (he’s looking at you, Elon Musk).
The book’s chapters tend to mix and/or alternate between these two facets: some go into detail explaining SBF’s fraudulent practices, as well as his time in court; others wax philosophical on the author’s disagreements with specific strands of TESCREAL techno-utopian ideology; and still others mix both strands together, with Sam meant to act as an exemplum of the broader beliefs and practices of the techno-utopian bundle. If you are interested in a more detailed view of its contents, I am summarizing and writing notes on each chapter in my substack.
*Assessment*
Overall, the book is an entertaining and informative read. I do feel it needs to be said that the writer is at his strongest when he’s disentangling and explaining what actually happened at FTX — he was a crypto journalist working for CoinDesk, so this is his actual area of expertise — and at his weakest when he’s trying to present his overarching thesis on the TESCREAList, tech-right intellectual conspiracy against democracy as a coherent underlying structure. He seems to be writing from a very specific ideological, left-leaning lens — whether it is his own or what he expects his intended readership to have — and doesn’t do what I feel is convincing work either in explaining the characteristics and influence of these tech-utopian ideologies or in criticizing their specific values and practices. To latch onto a few examples, he presents a very reductionist view of utilitarianism — when most utilitarians tend, in practice, to be rule-based utilitarians, and pretty similar in their moral practices and injunctions to traditional moral views — and of Rationalism, putting a lot of emphasis on how much they claim to deal in certainties and on their powers of prediction. He also has a tendency to cherry-pick and highlight relatively minor episodes and incidents, like Leverage or the Zizians, as if they represented normative and habitual behavior in these movements, with lots of implied guilt by association. It feels like the author has a very clear ideological and mental story, and anything he can find to support it is grist for the mill.
I think the author could have made a better book if he had been more systematic and detailed in explaining the whole FTX scandal, which I hope is what Laura Shin will end up doing if she ever gets around to writing her book. He could also have followed the other path — that of “intellectual definition, criticism, and refutation of TESCREAList beliefs and practices,” or of a general criticism of the tech-right’s beliefs and practices — but that is a well-trodden field too. As an example, you have Adam Becker’s More Everything Forever, which I reviewed both in general and chapter by chapter last year. Still, the author presents some interesting intellectual arguments. I particularly enjoyed the references to Jean Baudrillard, a thinker I read and pondered a great deal in my university years.
In the end, I think I could recommend the book to anyone interested in FTX, SBF, Effective Altruism, Rationalism, or the moral psychology of Silicon Valley, but if and only if they also read something that gives a different view from the other side of the fence, particularly as regards EA and Rationalism. In that sense, I would recommend it more as a foil and debating piece, one that highlights counterarguments and blind spots in those movements and communities. Unfortunately, I don’t think a single book like that exists, but I can suggest some specific books and articles for different branches.
November 21, 2025
Disappointing
I was really looking forward to this book, but it was a disappointing read. That may have more to do with the nature of SBF’s crime than the author. At the end of the day, SBF just stole money from his customers. And he didn’t do it very well. The cover up was poorly executed. The fraud is easy to understand. Because the crime was so simple minded, David Morris tries to drive the narrative by hammering away at SBF’s motivation as a member of the Effective Altruist cult. This just gets repetitive and boring. In the end, the story just lacks the energy of other infamous financial frauds like the Enron and Madoff scandals.
I was really looking forward to this book, but it was a disappointing read. That may have more to do with the nature of SBF’s crime than the author. At the end of the day, SBF just stole money from his customers. And he didn’t do it very well. The cover up was poorly executed. The fraud is easy to understand. Because the crime was so simple minded, David Morris tries to drive the narrative by hammering away at SBF’s motivation as a member of the Effective Altruist cult. This just gets repetitive and boring. In the end, the story just lacks the energy of other infamous financial frauds like the Enron and Madoff scandals.
November 11, 2025
An over-ambitious book. Perhaps if the author had narrowed his research to one small topic, he may have been able to contribute something valuable. Instead, the book attempts to sweep a broad range of ideologies, people, and companies into one grand conspiracy, and in doing so, sacrifices some much-needed depth of argument.
I also found the frequently derisive tone unnecessary and quite off-putting, particularly given the author's acknowledgement that the main subject of his derision is neurologically unable to ever experience happiness.
I also found the frequently derisive tone unnecessary and quite off-putting, particularly given the author's acknowledgement that the main subject of his derision is neurologically unable to ever experience happiness.
January 19, 2026
Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia by David Morris is a tightly argued, deeply researched takedown of one of the most mythologized figures in modern finance. Morris goes to great lengths to document the mechanics of the fraud, carefully laying out how customer funds were stolen, how internal controls were ignored, and how an entire ecosystem enabled deception through blind faith in tech exceptionalism.
A major strength of the book is how it dismantles the flattering narratives promoted by figures like Michael Lewis, who once praised Bankman-Fried as a singular, altruistic genius. Morris presents a far bleaker reality: a lazy, intellectually incurious operator, narrowly focused on math and personal interests, with little concern for ethics, responsibility, or truth. Particularly compelling is Morris’s treatment of Bankman-Fried’s repeated declarations of innocence, which come across not as a search for truth but as the self-justifying logic of a sociopath who fully believes his own invented narrative.
Unflinching and precise, Stealing the Future is an essential corrective to techno-utopian mythmaking and a powerful account of elite fraud carried out in plain sight.
A major strength of the book is how it dismantles the flattering narratives promoted by figures like Michael Lewis, who once praised Bankman-Fried as a singular, altruistic genius. Morris presents a far bleaker reality: a lazy, intellectually incurious operator, narrowly focused on math and personal interests, with little concern for ethics, responsibility, or truth. Particularly compelling is Morris’s treatment of Bankman-Fried’s repeated declarations of innocence, which come across not as a search for truth but as the self-justifying logic of a sociopath who fully believes his own invented narrative.
Unflinching and precise, Stealing the Future is an essential corrective to techno-utopian mythmaking and a powerful account of elite fraud carried out in plain sight.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews